03/11: Return the Asterisk
Posted by: Michael
This column by Mike Bianchi with the Orlando Sentinel was reprinted today in my local paper. I thought he was so right about alot of things that I would make mention of it here.
There it is said by Roger Maris' own son, leave it up to baseball to make the decision on what to do with these records. But I speak for myself, and probably other fans of the game, when I say that these records are sacred and must be protected somehow.
You'll have those that say let it go, or cry racism, or countless other allegations that are unfounded or detract away from the issue. Call it for what it is, and that is steroids has put a stain on a pure game. The only way to wash the stain is to have a notation added to each stat in question. Who is added to this list, and which stat is affected, is clearly evident in the player that is upon the list. You probably already have a mental list made up. I know I do.
You'll never clear the game completely of this, but the league is taking the right steps with drug testing and suspensions. Let's hope it will be enough.
"When you hear all this stuff, it just makes you shake your head," Richard Maris (Roger's son) says. "But it's not up to me to cast stones. Dad would have never jumped up and down and screamed, 'I've been cheated! I've been cheated!' so I'm not going to do it, either. That's for baseball to decide; it's for fans to make up their own minds."
There it is said by Roger Maris' own son, leave it up to baseball to make the decision on what to do with these records. But I speak for myself, and probably other fans of the game, when I say that these records are sacred and must be protected somehow.
If baseball can put an asterisk by Maris' name for 30 years because he played in eight more games than Ruth, it can put a skull-and-crossbones next to Bonds' records because they've been chemically contaminated.
You'll have those that say let it go, or cry racism, or countless other allegations that are unfounded or detract away from the issue. Call it for what it is, and that is steroids has put a stain on a pure game. The only way to wash the stain is to have a notation added to each stat in question. Who is added to this list, and which stat is affected, is clearly evident in the player that is upon the list. You probably already have a mental list made up. I know I do.
You'll never clear the game completely of this, but the league is taking the right steps with drug testing and suspensions. Let's hope it will be enough.
Seamus wrote:
When it comes down to it, I think every era had some sort of variable that changed the way the game was played. Blacks were not allowed in the league before 1947, but there is nobody trying to eliminate the records of Ruth and Gehrig. Sure, some of these hitters today probaby gained an unfair advantage at some point (I'll use Giambi as an example just to keep it Yankee-related), but Micahel A. Smith made the point on ESPN's "Around the Horn" that we do not know how many of these home runs were hit off of pitchers who were also using steroids or gaining some other type of unfair advantage.